Delivering SMS Insights

Spotlight: Ricky Sailor, Founder of UnsignedPreps

Ricky Sailor loves football and everything that comes with it. As a retired football player himself, he says the most exciting day is when a high school player makes his decision for college ball. This inspired him to start his non-profit, unsignedpreps, which helps unsigned high school athletes secure college scholarships. His mission is to create opportunities that maximize the student athlete’s ability to succeed athletically, academically, and socially. And of course, he uses SendHub to help achieve his mission.

Every summer Ricky takes a couple high school students on a tour of colleges, to meet with coaches, other athletes, and potentially try out for scholarships. With 40+ parents worried about their student athletes though, the need for updates can be incredibly time consuming. “My Blackberry lets me send group messages to 8 people at once”, says Ricky, “so I would have to write a message, send it to a group, forward it to another group, and do this over and over again, all while on the road trying to keep 40 kids in check. It was impossible for me to manage”. With 10+ stops on some of these trips, the complaint is highly understandable - keeping one set of parents in the loop would be a lot, but 40? Impossible.

… and this is where Ricky discovered SendHub. He set up a group the parents could subscribe to, and from his cell phone he sends one message that lets everyone know where they are, how the trip is going, and transmits other information the parents may need. "It’s a great tool to keep everyone informed, but also allows them to communicate with me”, says Ricky, “I don’t usually give them my personal number, and most of them don’t have smartphone’s so email isn’t a way to communicate. With SendHub, I can easily text them from my phone, and they can respond from any text-enabled phone”

And now for our (infamous) Q&A:Fav part of SendHub: Broadcasting. The ability to send one quick message, right from my phone, to 100 people (and for free!)Fav football player: Deion SandersFav tech gadget: Hm….Most embarassing SMS moment: To be honest, I’ve heard so many horror stories, I tripple check all my messages. The blackberry also makes it harder to have really bad ‘wrong person’ moments.

A man with a passion that helps change lives - that’s definitely something we admire, and love to support. To learn more about UnsignedPreps, check out their website (and be sure to like their facebook page!). We hope you enjoyed our Spotlight, and if you (or your company) want to be featured, send us a txt or email and tell us how YOU use SendHub :)